Word of the Week: Pommes Frites

Pommes Frites

“Pommes frites” — obviously French. If you’ve taken a French class, you know that the word “pomme” means “apple” and the word “frite” means fried. So if you order “pommes frites” from a restaurant menu, will your server bring you a heaping plate of fried apples?

While fried apples are good in their own right and deserve a place on that restaurant menu, “pommes frites” actually refers to French fries. You see, the French word for potato is actually “pomme de terre,” or “fruit of the earth.”

Used in a sentence:

Burgers go well with a side of pommes frites.

So if the French call fries pommes frites, what do they call fried apples? Whoa.

The image Pommes III by Christian Schnettelker is licensed under CC BY 2.0.